Esteban Lizarazo

What is the company’s position within the pharmaceutical sector?

Vitalis is a pharmaceutical company mainly focused on injectables generics, where we are recognized as the “injectables experts.” We have two facilities in Mexico: a glass business company called Tzinapu, where we also make glass for ampoules and vials; for third-party customers and internal consumption; and a pharmaceutical company, Pharmaservice, with an R&D center and specialized and niche products. In Chile, we have a market presence not only through Vitalis but also with a pharmaceutical compounding company named Insuval. Finally, we also produce in Colombia, where we have state-of the-art manufacturing and quality control facilities capable of producing more than 300 million units per year and an extensive portfolio. We have possibly one of the largest factories in the region for low-volume injectables.

Vitalis has a presence in 22 countries across Latin America, Asia, and Africa. How important is Colombia to the global portfolio?

Right now, Colombia is the centerpiece. In 2023, Colombia and Mexico are equal in terms of revenue, though Chile is starting to gain momentum. Ultimately, we would like to secure three parts of the Americas—the north (Mexico), the center (Colombia), and the south (Chile)—as independent regions of a highly symmetrical group. Colombia has captured 32-33% of the comparable market in values, and in terms of sold units, it is almost 50% of the served market, which is enormous. We also have a direct presence in Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica and Guatemala with a dynamic and effective sales team and have developed an important indirect market through distributors in other geographies like El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, and other countries abroad Latin America.

What are your priorities for 2023?

The priority is to get our newly added production capacity operational in Mexico and Colombia. In Colombia, we aim to consolidate and locate the facilities in Bogotá on one site in Sopo with a sustainable, efficient, and state-of-the-art site. Then, our goal is to improve our market presence in Latin America and ultimately rank first or second in the key Latam markets. The third issue is to work on new product launches with more elaborate molecules.